Wireless communication services in rural areas typically are provided by a low density distribution of base sites with a large inter-site distance (ISD). On the other hand, in denser urban/suburban areas, wireless communication services typically are provided by a higher density distribution of base sites with a smaller inter-site distance. Correspondingly, mobile devices operating in rural areas may need to be permitted to transmit at higher maximum uplink power levels in order to communicate with a nearest base site, while a lower maximum uplink transmit power level may suffice for mobile devices operating in urban/suburban areas.
The Third Generation Partnership Project Long Term Evolution (3GPP LTE) communication standards provide for base sites to broadcast their maximum allowable uplink transmit power level (PMAX), so that served mobile terminals can determine an appropriate uplink power level. However, when a roaming mobile terminal is in a boundary area between a high PMAX base site and a low PMAX base site, handover holes and/or uplink signal-to-interference-plus-noise (SINR) desensitization can occur when the mobile terminal employs a maximum uplink power level that is inappropriate for either a serving or a neighbor base site.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. It will further be appreciated that certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. Those skilled in the art will further recognize that references to specific implementation embodiments such as “circuitry” may equally be accomplished via replacement with software instruction executions either on general purpose computing apparatus (e.g., CPU) or specialized processing apparatus (e.g., DSP). It will also be understood that the terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.